New Formula Finds Higher Rate of Elderly Living in Poverty

The Takeaway
By David J. Fazekas

Click here to listen to SAGE Constituent, Delores Miller on WNYC's The Takeaway.

The federal government is thinking about implementing a new formula to calculate poverty. The new formula would increase the number of poor from 13.2 percent to 15.8 percent. The striking change comes among the elderly, where under the new measure, 18.7 percent of people 65-years-old and over are under the poverty line. That's 7.1 million Americans and an increase from 9.7 percent.

To help us decipher this new formula and what it could mean is New York Times reporter, Sam Roberts, who says that this new formula is modeled after something very similar to what New York City has been using since 2006. Also joining us is, Delores Miller, who is 74 years old, and lost her same-sex partner three years ago, and now faces eviction from her apartment and could find herself homeless very soon.